Running To The End

Once upon a time, there were only 3 channels of note: ABC, NBC, CBS (yeah, I guess PBS too). A 30 minute program would last 22 minutes. This meant that a program that went from 7 to 7:30 would usually end at 7:26. There'd be four minutes of commercial, and closing credits, leaving the viewer enough time to snack, hit the bathroom, whatever.

However, after 30 years of cable, one thing has changed. People like to surf, which means they like to see content from start to end. Many cable programs now have content to the very end of the show. You can watch content at 7:29, so even if you were surfing, and missed stuff from 7:25 to 7:28, there's still something on up to the very last minute.

I like that.